Fine Arts
Congratulations on including fine arts in your child’s curriculum! At a time when most schools are cutting their fine arts budgets, exposing your children to music, poetry, drama, and art is important and beneficial in ways that might not be obvious.
Numerous studies have shown that there are more extensive neural connections in musicians than non-musicians. Studying music often results in greater mathematical ability.
The trouble with music appreciation in general is that people are taught to have too much respect for music; they should be taught to love it instead. Igor Stravinsky
When a child is learning to draw or paint, she is also learning how to more carefully observe her subject, plan and execute a project, and take joy in creation.
By participating in a play, a student gains self-confidence, the ability to speak in front of others, and the patience necessary in learning lines and waiting for cues. Dancing with a group has similar benefits to partaking in team sports.
Drama is life with the dull bits cut out. Alfred Hitchcock
Some people might be skeptical of the value of fine arts in your homeschool curriculum. Yet what sorts of men or women do we imagine our children becoming? Will they be well-rounded? Have a means for understanding other cultures? Be able to appreciate beauty in the world? Studying and/or participating in the fine arts can lead your child to a richer life and isn’t that a goal worth achieving?
Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world. Voltaire
The good news is that you don’t have to be an artist or poet or musician to bring these gifts to your child.
Some art resources: Meet the Masters @ Home, Drawing with Children by Mona Brookes, Getting to Know the World’s Greatest Artists, series by Mike Venezia.
A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom. Robert Frost
For poetry, Evan-Moor’s Read and Understand Poetry workbooks do a fine job teaching children how to read and appreciate this art form. Poetic devices are covered as are the irregularities that are often found in poems. Each of the books in this graded series contains over 25 poems from well-known and lesser-known writers. The selection is broad, yet careful and entertaining.
I dream a lot. I do more painting when I’m not painting. It’s in the subconscious. Andrew Wyeth
Beethoven Lives Upstairs, Mr. Bach Comes to Call, and Hallelujah Handel! are just some of the titles in the Classical Kids, audio series designed to introduce children to composers and their music. A blend of history, drama, and music appreciation, these CDs tell stories (based on historical fact) of children interacting with the composers. Wonderful dramatization brings these tales to life and the teacher notes provide additional background information to help you expand on the stories.
Children naturally enjoy creating. Fine arts gives them ways to express their talents and their unique vision of their world.
And here’s one final quote on their importance:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. Albert Einstein